(removes reference in paragraph 4 to first London main marketlisting of year)
By Andrew Winterbottom
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Shares in British tool hire firmHSS Hire Group Plc fell on their stock market debut onWednesday, after being priced at the bottom end of theirpreviously set price range.
The company's parent, private equity firm Exponent, maintains a 50.4 percent stake. "It's a sound business, but ...there's a much larger overhang than people may have liked fromExponent," said Mark Howson, analyst at Canaccord Genuity.
The stock traded around 200 pence by 0922 GMT on the LondonStock Exchange, having been priced at 210p against arange of 210p to 262p.
The flotation price had valued the company at 325 millionpounds ($493 million). HSS is Britain's second-biggest tool hirefirm behind Speedy Hire.
Chris Davies, HSS Hire's chief executive, said the company'sgrowth plans involve expanding its small branch presence to 500sites across the UK and Ireland while deepening its outsourcingrelationships with facilities managers and large supply chains.
The company has 265 locations across the UK and Ireland andis opening a new small branch at the rate of one per week.
HSS's revenue for the year ended Sept. 27, 2014 was 271.6million pounds with adjusted gross earnings (EBITDA) of 67million. It has around 2,900 employees.
The company is trading at an enterprise value/EBITDAmultiple of around six times, similar to Speedy Hire.
"The UK hire sector is attractive for investors, given therecovery potential in the construction sector," said StephenRawlinson, an analyst at brokerage Whitman Howard.
JPMorgan acted as global co-ordinator, jointbookrunner and sponsor for the float, while Numis Securities also acted as joint book runner. The group raisedprimary proceeds of around 103 million pounds from the listing.
HSS said 19 percent of the shares on offer had beenallocated to retail investors.
London was the fourth most active market in the world forIPOs in 2014, with $18.8 billion raised in 43 listings in theyear to Dec. 15.
($1 = 0.6597 pounds) (Editing by David Clarke and David Holmes)